6 degrees south latitude, the mouth of Brazil's Potengi River, Portuguese colonial camp, Port Natal.
This was the northeastern corner of the South American continent, and also the place closest to the African Continent. In fact, from Brazil's natural harbor of Port Natal to Sierra Leone in West Africa, the straight-line distance was only 3,000 kilometers. With a fair wind and full sails, the voyage took only a month, or even less!
The shortness of this route to the New Continent far exceeded the Castilians' imagination, and was also the Portuguese's absolute navigational secret. And in Bruno Cao's estimation, Port Natal was fully 6,000 kilometers from the dangerous native kingdom, from that Great Island of Cipangu in Cuba, with no major native tribes anywhere nearby, absolutely far from every danger! So this was an excellent colonial site, the inevitable way station on the "new Atlantic route."
According to the West African currents and monsoons that Portuguese navigators had already mastered, the best time to travel from West Africa to South America was to set out in autumn on the Northeast Trade Winds; it would take only a month to arrive. As for the return voyage from South America to West Africa, they should set out in spring on the southeast trade winds; it would take a little more than a month. They had to avoid in particular the weak-wind period from July to September, because the equatorial doldrums at that time would be every sea captain's nightmare...
"Lord as my witness! We will establish the Kingdom of Portugal's first colony in the New Continent at the place closest to West Africa! Without question, every ship traveling from West Africa to the New Continent will stop at this way-station colony. And I, Baron Bruno Cao, as the governor of this colony,